86 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



they will return to the shore and die on the bank. In the 

 same way the large turtles which frequent the Indian rivers 

 will also come ashore when shot through the body. I suppose 

 they are distressed by the water entering through the bullet- 

 holes in the hard skin. 



About twenty-five miles to the east of Baroda is the hill- 

 fort of Powaghur, standing at a height of 2500 feet above the 

 sea. It is much frequented during the hot weather by the 

 officers of the cantonment, with their families. The base and 

 sides of the hill are clothed with heavy jungle, well stocked 

 with sambur, and having a fair sprinkling of tigers, bears, 

 and panthers. 



The sambur lie in the ravines, far up the hill-side, and 

 require hard work to bag them. My friend Hayward did 

 more execution among them than any one else, and his plan 

 was to ascend the mountain before daybreak, and take up his 

 position at the head of one of the spurs of the hill, at the 

 highest point accessible to the deer. Beaters, who had been 

 sent for the purpose, would then come up the ravine, driving 

 the deer before them. The sambur would move up, till the 

 rocks became too abrupt for them to ascend higher, when 

 they would skirt the precipice to pass over the spur into the 

 next ravine. The hinds always came first, then the smaller 

 stags, and if there was a big one, he invariably came last. 

 They were not therefore bagged without considerable exercise 

 of self-denial on the part of the sportsman, for, as it could 

 never be known that the old stag was with the herd till he 

 made his appearance, it was not safe to fire at the small ones ; 

 and if there was no big one, the chance of the lesser was 

 often lost before the fact was ascertained. 



Officers visiting the hill from Baroda generally made the 

 journey during the night, as the toilsome ascent was best got 



